Photo Albums

Kia Ora Comes to Cazadero

[Photo by Darlene Topilko.] Kia Ora arrived at the Cazadero anchorage on December 11, 2016, ahead of a third boat unknown to either of us. The next morning the crews of The Fox and Kia Ora hiked up the arroyo that spills into the sea a short distance to the east of the anchorage. The hike to the head of the arroyo is about a shade-dappled mile or two. A small herd of goats is known to spend time there, and it's a good place to see birds and practice your identification of native desert plants. In years past, monarch butterflies rested there on their southbound migration.

As we ambled along we spotted about five of the herd of goats that did not seem amused at all by our presence. A couple of lizards were similarly irritated. The flycatchers and other birds remained indifferent.

Back aboard for the evening, we all enjoyed the flocks of grebes doing their sunset fishing. From sunset to the next sunrise, we heard the belly-flopping of many smooth-tailed mobulus leaping throughout the bay. All in all it was a good critter count.